Protester convicted of obstructing police at Kirby Misperton

A man has been found guilty of obstructing police during a protest in North Yorkshire, following a trial at York Magistrates Court.

Steven Peers, of Kirby Misperton Protection Camp, Kirby Misperton, climbed on top of an eight-foot-high wooden and metal structure on the verge of Habton Road on Monday 2 October 2017.

The structure was deemed to be illegal, unsafe and potentially dangerous by a local authority civil engineer – posing a risk to Peers himself, to other protesters, to the general public and to the police.

From 9.15am, police officers asked him to come down so the structure could be dismantled safely, but 50-year-old Peers consistently refused. The court heard Peers deliberately stayed on the structure, knowing his actions would have the effect of making the police’s job more difficult.

A specialist police team and an aerial platform had to be called in to remove him, and he was arrested and brought down at about 5pm.

Peers was found guilty of wilfully obstructing a police officer in the execution of his duty at York Magistrates Court on Friday 4 May 2018. He was sentenced to a 12-month conditional discharge, and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £100 and a victim surcharge of £20.